September 15, 2024

Businesses Eye a Future in Space as New Texas Space Commission Launches (Source: NBC DFW)
The new Texas Space Commission is up and running. The governing body aims to encourage aerospace companies to add to the state's economy. NBC 5 toured one company in Central Texas and spoke with the commission's newly hired executive director. Space is more crowded than many think. Roughly 10,000 satellites orbit Earth and move throughout the cosmos. What happens if they need repairs? Firefly Aerospace aims to fill that business opportunity.

State lawmakers approved, and Gov. Greg Abbott created a Texas Space Commission to regulate and encourage the industry last year. The Texas appeal for space companies comes from major universities training a high-tech workforce and open land on the outskirts of major cities. Much of the rocket tests for Firefly need space away from homes so they can thrust their engines without noise complaints. (9/12)

Crew Dragon Splashes Down Off Florida Coast to Conclude Polaris Dawn Mission (Source: Space News)
A Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico early Sept. 15, concluding a five-day private astronaut mission that featured the first commercial spacewalk. The Crew Dragon capsule Resilience splashed down near Dry Tortugas, in the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West, Florida, at 3:37 a.m. Eastern. The splashdown location was a new one for SpaceX, which said it selected it after poor weather conditions at other locations off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida delayed the launch by nearly two weeks. (9/15)

‘Puffy Head Bird Leg Syndrome’: What Space Travel Does to the Body (Source: Sydney Morning Herald)
Andy Thomas had just landed on Earth after 20 weeks in space. He unfastened his restraints, got to his feet and felt a staggering weight in his legs. “I thought, my god, I’ll never walk again.” He turned his head, and the cabin seemed to spin. “I felt nauseated. I just felt listless. My balance was all off,” he recalls. “It just felt awful.”

It was 1998 and Thomas, one of only two Australians who have travelled in space, had just hours earlier been aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station, floating about with other international crew members. After touchdown at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, he was whisked into crew rooms and given anti-nausea tablets as he waited out the worst of his body’s reaction to entering back into Earth’s gravity. “I kept still, didn’t move my head, just waited.” (9/15)

Despite Space Travel Sputters, Some Say New Mexico Spaceport is Poised for Boom (Source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
New Mexico State University economist Christopher Erickson said, like Spaceport America, NMSU and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology hire for a large number of technical jobs in Southern New Mexico. According to a 2022 economic impact report co-authored by Erickson, 549 people were employed directly by the spaceport, either with a tenant or as a state employee. A total of 811 jobs were supported in some way by the enterprise, located about 35 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences, a town of fewer than 6,000 residents.

Tenants excluded, Spaceport America employs 31 people, with its corporate office located in Las Cruces. Last year, Virgin Galactic announced it would be laying off 185 employees; 73 of them lived and worked in New Mexico. No Spaceport America employees were laid off. Workers at the spaceport are spending money locally, Erickson said, citing hotel rooms, restaurants, rent and groceries. He noted there are other tenants at the site, and Virgin Galactic’s lease was unaffected by the move.

“I feel, certainly, it has been of some benefit,” Phillip Mortensen said of the spaceport. “People come to town to eat, so on and so forth; they come for the tours. ... We have seen a lot of growth in town, a lot of government money.” Elephant Butte is still growing, even with flights paused, City Manager Janet Porter-Carrejo said. She attributed the trend to the diversity of projects at the spaceport. She would like to see some Spaceport America offices located in Sierra County, to bring more high-paying jobs to the area. (9/14)

A Sprinkling of Cosmic Dust May Have Helped Kick-Start Life on Earth (Source: Space.com)
Cosmic dust may have helped to kick-start life on Earth, new research suggests. The findings challenge a widely held assumption that this was not a plausible explanation. The origin of life on Earth has long remained a mystery. Many theories suggest that life emerged from "prebiotic chemistry," in which organic compounds formed and repeatedly self-organized until life as we know it developed.

However, scientists have noted that the rocks that make up Earth's surface are relatively deficient in reactive and soluble forms of the essential elements needed for this prebiotic process, such as phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon. The prevailing theory is that the ingredients necessary for life might have been delivered to Earth. However, it remains unclear how these materials could have reached our planet's surface without being destroyed in the process.

Scientists investigated whether fine-grained "cosmic dust" could provide an answer. This granular material is produced in space by the collisions of asteroids or the vaporization and disintegration of comets as they move around the solar system. "In contrast to larger objects, the flux of cosmic dust to Earth is essentially constant on yearly timescales," they wrote. "Moreover, some fraction of cosmic dust grains pass relatively gently through the Earth's atmosphere, thereby retaining a greater fraction of primitive" elements than large impactors do. (9/14)

Russian Cosmonauts Kononenko and Chub Mark One Year in Space (Source: TASS)
The two cosmonauts were sent to orbit aboard the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft, which blasted off from Baikonur on Sep. 15, 2023. Commander of the Roscosmos cosmonaut squad Oleg Kononenko and cosmonaut Nikolay Chub marked one year since the start of their mission aboard the ISS. (9/14)

First Israeli Woman Astronaut? Innovation Minister Pushes for Historic NASA Training (Source: YNet)
Israel could soon see its first female astronaut. During a visit to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel announced this week her efforts to support the training of an Israeli woman astronaut through NASA, marking a historic milestone for the country’s space industry. (9/14)

UCF Space Medicine Expert: Polaris Dawn Brings New Areas of Research, Medical Care (Source: UCF)
Emmanuel Urquieta, an internationally recognized space medicine expert who recently joined UCF’s College of Medicine, is especially excited about this latest mission. Polaris Dawn is carrying an ultrasound device that the crew will use to monitor possible nitrogen bubble formation in their bodies. That medical data “will help us understand how the body changes during spaceflight, and a new understanding of bubble formation in spaceflight,” Urquieta says.

He added that astronauts will provide biological samples – which are being processed by the UCF College of Medicine – to help researchers further determine the molecular impacts of space travel. Radiation exposure is another area of interest to space medicine researchers. This flight’s higher altitude will put crew members farther from the Earth’s magnetic fields protection, exposing them to higher doses of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). So the flight will provide more research data on how radiation impacts space travelers. (9/13)

Early Dark Energy Could Resolve Cosmology's Two Biggest Puzzles (Source: Phys.org)
A new study by MIT physicists proposes that a mysterious force known as early dark energy could solve two of the biggest puzzles in cosmology and fill in some major gaps in our understanding of how the early universe evolved. One puzzle in question is the "Hubble tension," which refers to a mismatch in measurements of how fast the universe is expanding. The other involves observations of numerous early, bright galaxies that existed at a time when the early universe should have been much less populated.

Now, the MIT team has found that both puzzles could be resolved if the early universe had one extra, fleeting ingredient: early dark energy. Dark energy is an unknown form of energy that physicists suspect is driving the expansion of the universe today. Early dark energy is a similar, hypothetical phenomenon that may have made only a brief appearance, influencing the expansion of the universe in its first moments before disappearing entirely. (9/13)

Iran Successfully Launches Chamran-1 Research Satellite Into Orbit (Source: Almayadeen)
Iran has successfully launched the domestically-produced Chamran 1 research satellite into orbit, Iranian media reported. The satellite was placed in a 550-kilometer orbit on Saturday morning using the Qaem-100, a solid-fueled satellite carrier developed by aerospace experts from the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Qaem-100, Iran's first three-stage solid-fuel satellite launcher, was previously reported by official media to have successfully placed a satellite into orbit above 500 kilometers (310 miles) for the first time in January. That same month, Iran announced the simultaneous deployment of three satellites into orbit, shortly after the IRGC launched a research satellite. (9/14)

Ecuador Plans to Have a Spaceport (Source: Expreso)
The arrival of man in space in 1969 opened up endless possibilities for technological development to benefit humanity, so much so that after 55 years Ecuador has also been immersed and plans to implement a spaceport in its territory. According to experts, to achieve this goal, the privileged geographical conditions and the fact that it is located in the center of the planet make it ideal for launching rockets into space from our country.

“I believe that if Ecuador makes the right decisions, it can become a spaceport for the region, because we have all the elements to achieve this,” says Robert Aillón, president of the Guayaquil Space Society and general manager of Leviathan Space, a company that promotes the development of this private spaceport in Ecuador. To do so, the aforementioned director explains that financing is contemplated as a private initiative and that the only support from the State would be to establish the legal framework necessary for it to operate. (9/14)

Embry‑Riddle Partners With Florida Universities to Boost Space Manufacturing (Source: ERAU)
Researchers from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, the University of Florida, Florida A&M University and Florida Institute of Technology have announced a partnership to create a multi-site organization known as the Center for Science, or C-STARS, which aims to advance the production of unique medicines, electronics and bioenergy systems in space, all within the epicenter of space activity: Florida. This initiative supports the rapidly expanding space manufacturing sector, backed by $80,000 in support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). (7/24)

NASA Releases Solicitation for Spaceport Operations and Center Services (SOCS) at KSC (Source: NASA)
NASA/Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Spaceport Operations and Center Services (SOCS). Requirements under SOCS include maintenance and operations of NASA facilities, infrastructure, and utilities; logistics services; and spaceport integration at NASA/KSC. Click here. (9/6)